Your company will be allocated to one of the partner Regional Innovation Centres (RIC) based on a number of criteria including regional proximity and any current or previous history working with a particular RIC.

Once accepted into the program, your Regional Innovation Centre (RIC) will determine the best expert/mentor to match you with based on your industry, business stage and specific project goals.  There may be an opportunity to engage more than one expert, depending on project requirements.

You will be expected to provide regular project updates as well as general business metrics during your participation in the i.d.e.a. Fund program, as a requirement to receive funding. Once your project(s) is completed, post-program follow-up reports will be requested for up to three years. Metrics may include but aren’t limited to: revenues, investment, employment and intellectual property.

We expect that all decisions around financial commitments, project plans, budgets, milestones and KPIs, and updates will involve a decision-maker in the business.  This is usually the owner/founder/C-Suite. Other members of your team can be involved in these meetings and are welcome. Once projects begin, involvement may be limited to one or more functional area and/or person depending on the project scope.

The funding will be distributed as outlined below:

• 50% of activity seed financing released once an initial diagnostic and work plan has been completed by the recipient and their assigned lead expert, including goals and milestones
• 25% of activity seed financing released upon recommendation of the lead project expert and completion of their interim report.
• 25% of the activity seed financing released upon completion of the project and the approval of the final reporting requirements. This means that the participant must spend both the grant money AND their matching funds before receiving the final 25% of the grant money. The project may be close to 100% complete.

Yes. There are open-ended questions on the application form where you will have an opportunity to explain your product and/or service in as much detail as you’d like.

You must be incorporated federally or in the province of Ontario in order to participate in the i.d.e.a. Fund.

Yes. Your business must be incorporated to be eligible to apply to this program.

No. You may only participate in one cohort of the program.

Yes. This feature will be visible once the application form is started and after the pre-qualification questions. The application also auto-saves every 10 seconds.

If you use the “save and continue later” feature, the application will not delete completed questions.

Applications for Cohort 3 of i.d.e.a. Fund are open from September 9, 2024 to September 30, 2024. Applications for Cohort 4 will open in Summer 2025.

Yes. Cohort 1 ended on February 28, 2023. Applications for Cohort 2 cohort of the i.d.e.a. Fund open on March 24, 2023. Updates will be posted on the i.d.e.a. Fund website. At the bottom of this page, you can also sign up to receive email updates and to be notified when the applications open.

The budget form is created to provide us with a high-level understanding of your project and project activities from a financial perspective so that we can review how much seed funding you are requesting, how much you are contributing, and how you expect to use that money.  If you are accepted into the program, we will be working with you to develop a more comprehensive budget, KPIs and milestones..

There is no minimum revenue required for i.d.e.a. Fund. Companies must have fewer than 500 employees.

There will be five (5) options for your business state. The explanations are:

1. Idea: Entrepreneur with idea; initial market and technology exploration.
2. Discovery: Value proposition established; testing ideas; proof of concept; identifying customers; early financials; Friends-and-Family funding.
3. Validation: Business model established; minimum viable product; customer verified; initial orders; testing go-to-market strategy; pursuing angel funding; or in an accelerator
4. Efficiency: Initial market traction; scaling sales and marketing; demand creation; forecasting based on actuals; pursuing early-stage VC.
5. Scale: Validated product and market; customer growth; established management team; pursuing later-stage investment.

Please visit the Government of Canada’s website to identify your 5-digit NAICS code. Often businesses may be categorized by more than one code, please choose the most applicable one.

A business model canvas is a visual tool intended for developing new or documenting existing business models. It quickly informs how an organization or business creates its products or services, delivers them and captures value (e.g. with your customers or revenue). Think of the business model canvas as containing nine (9) essential building blocks. We encourage you to attend one of our information sessions to see an entire walk-through of the BMC or download our Business Model Canvas Guide. Download an OCR accessible Business Model Canvas Guide(PDF)